Zhuangzi Inner Chapters, Commentary Volume 3 — Su Jiu

Commentary by Hanshan Deqing, the Recluse of Mount Lu

**The Preserver of Life**

This passage teaches how to nurture one's nature and preserve life, for nature is the master of life. It means that people, in their pursuit of physical comforts and bodily needs, chase endlessly after fame, wealth, and status—thinking these are the strategies for nurturing life. Yet in doing so, they harm their true nature and waste their vitality, toiling their whole lives without knowing when to stop. This is what is meant by losing one's true self, colliding and grinding against external things, their bodies racing like galloping horses without knowing how to return home. Is this not the deepest sorrow?

Therefore, the teaching is this: be at peace with the times and accept your circumstances. Do not greedily seek to nourish the body. Instead, use purity and detachment from desires to nurture your true nature. This reveals the true path of practice.

Our lives are limited(Life is as brief as a horse passing through a crack, fleeting like a gap in the light.), while knowledge is endless(Anxious thoughts and restless deliberation ceaselessly chase each other day and night, like an ocean without a shore.). To pursue the endless with the limited is exhausting(To chase infinite delusions with a finite body and mind wears you down and endangers you deeply.). So yet, to persist in this exhausting chase, thinking one is wise, only brings danger until the end(Already weary and lost, still unaware, one clings to the illusion of knowing—setting a course toward final ruin that cannot be saved.). Do good without seeking a reputation for goodness(Doing good without the desire for worldly praise.). Avoid what is wrong without courting punishment(Acting wrongly without daring to cross into what would invite punishment. This is to let go of both good and evil, to wander through life with an open heart, unhooked by worldly matters.). Follow the middle way as your constant guide('Follow' means to yield to; 'middle way' means the natural order; 'constant' means 'the norm.' This is simply to rest the mind peacefully in the natural pattern of Heaven's principle as your constant standard, without chasing after excess or straining to push your way forward.). In this way, you can preserve your body, keep your spirit whole, support your family, and fulfill your allotted years(When you comply with the natural principle, you do not let greed ruin your life—so you can keep the body and spirit whole. You do not disgrace yourself or harm your vital force—so you can care for your loved ones and complete your natural life span. This is the key to nurturing life.).